I kept this prayer written on a scrap of paper that I taped near my computer where I could read it each day.
Later I was looking for a closing prayer for a senior retreat and decided to us it. Not long after that I used this same prayer on a large bulletin board as graduation approached.
It seems I wasn't the only one who's heart was captured by this prayer. Lots of people commented on it.
When it was time to take the bulletin board down, I just couldn't seem to throw it out. My good friend Lisa helped me cover it with clear contact paper. The oversized prayer then traveled with me to Higher Ground and I shared it with even more youth. When fall came the prayer was rolled up and sat collecting dust in the corner of my office. When the time came for me to leave my job at St. James, I decided to take it home instead of sending it to the trash.
As the movers came to pack up our possessions, the prayer came with us.
While unpacking in Salem, I was once again faced with the decision to pitch or to keep.
I thought about its size, wondered where I might ever need to use this again, knew I could just as easily right this prayer on a small piece of paper and hang it near my computer at home.
I also had to admit to myself that I most likely would not be using this at a retreat, a graduation, or on a bulletin board any time soon, and most likely not ever.
But I couldn't toss it out.
(I don't think of myself as that big of a 'packrat'. However I do get attached to odd items. Most of the time they are small items like a bowl full of rocks.)
Just before I found the poster, I had opened the box containing our staple gun.
So naturally, I hung the oversized, poorly laminated, wrinkled prayer up on the wall in the garage.
For 21 months now, every time I drive in and out of our garage, I can't help but see this prayer.
Go now to smuggle God into your world
Holding tight the hands of those with whom you share the way.
Peers, parents, friends, colleagues, Christ.
May your life show forth God at every turn.
May your heart and your road be
ablaze with holy fire!
Amen
I wish I could tell you that I pray this prayer and more importantly that I am living this prayer well in my everyday life. But I am not.I used to feel as though I was smuggling God into my world.
I had a stronger sense that my life was showing forth God.
Being ablaze was exhilarating
I miss that.
I miss the holy fire in my heart.
I miss smuggling God.
I need to find a way to get that back into my life, my heart, my world.
Then maybe I can share it with peers, parents, friends, colleagues, Christ.
That last paragraph sounds desperate, as if I am in a bad way.
I don't feel as desperate as that sounds.
I guess what I am trying to convey is that
I am missing something in my spiritual life,
my faith, and especially my religion.
Sometimes I can still feel warm embers glowing.
Leading the Senior retreat for Regis High School on Tuesday helped.
But I have experienced the feeling of walking on a road ablaze with holy fire,
and now only embers just don't seem to be enough for me.
I am trying to find out if I am on the right road.
And if I am, then how do I fan the flames and grow the embers into a fire?
If I am not on the right road, how do I know and
more importantly, how do I get back on track?
I don't have answers.
So I continue to pray,
to seek,
to travel this road and look for guidance.
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